In this photo released by the Montgomery (Ala.) Police officer Anderson Gordon poses for an official photograph. Gordon was killed in 1997 when he was shot by Torrey Twane McNabb. (Ala.) Police, via AP)

(Newser)
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A convicted cop killer who sued Alabama over its lethal injection method was put to death Thursday night, but not before he cursed at the state and said: "I hate you." As the procedure began, Torrey Twane McNabb, 40, raised both of his middle fingers in a show of defiance. McNabb's attorneys had unsuccessfully sought to stop the execution since he is one of several inmates in an ongoing lawsuit challenging the humaneness of the state's lethal injection procedure. "Mom, sis, look at my eyes. I got no tears. I am unafraid. To the state of Alabama, I hate you ... I hate you. I hate you," McNabb said in his final statement, per the New York Daily News.

McNabb appeared to be breathing for the first 20 minutes of the 35-minute long procedure. He later appeared to move his head, grimace, and raise his arms after two consciousness checks in which a guard pinches his arm, says his name, and pulls back his eyelid—before eventually becoming still. McNabb was convicted of killing Montgomery police officer Anderson Gordon in 1997. He shot Gordon five times as the officer sat in his patrol car after arriving at a traffic accident McNabb caused while fleeing a bail bondsman, prosecutors said. Gordon's relatives said in a statement that the 30-year-old officer—known as "Brother"—was devoted to his family, his two children, and his work as a police officer.